Ohio Gambling Revenue Slows Down in May, Earnings in 2022 Remain Strong

Ohio’s residents and visitors’ excitement for gambling after the pandemic seems to be diminishing as there is a noticeable slowdown in casino and racino revenues in May 2022 in comparison to May 2021. On Tuesday, the Ohio Casino Control Commission reported that gambling revenues amounted to $202 million, which is $7 million less than the $209 million the gambling industry brought in the previous year during the same month. These numbers are after all winnings were paid out but before handing about a third of the earnings to the state in form of state taxes and fees.

Ohio Gambling Establishments on Their Way to Beat 2021 Record Earnings

Yet casinos and racinos in Ohio are earning a lot more cash than what they did before the pandemic. In 2020 gambling houses were closed but the amassed revenue of $983 million in 2021 was nowhere near the modest $850 million earned in 2019. It is actually very likely that Ohio’s gambling centers break their revenue record for 2021 bringing in bigger margins in 2022 than the previous calendar year. The gambling industry clocked in record revenue last year with $2.31 billion in the books. Since the beginning of 2022, the gambling industry in Ohio has total earnings of $984 million, which is actually $30 million higher than the revenue of $954 million for the period between January and May last year.

The state of Ohio has four casinos, whose profit dropped by just 0.2% in May year on year. In contrast, Ohio’s seven racinos saw a drop in revenues of 6%. More specifically, earnings data for Ohio’s four casino establishments for May 2022 looked like this: JACK Cleveland Casino’s profit amounted to $22.3 million, down from $22.5 million year on year; Hollywood Columbus made a revenue of $22 million, down from $23.1 million; Hollywood Toledo made a profit of $20.5 million, down from $23.1 million and Hard Rock Casino Cincinnati was the only winner with earnings this May amounting to $21.9 million, up from $19.7 million in May 2021.

New Gambling Options in Ohio

Next year will bring even wider revenue possibilities for casinos and racinos in Ohio as sports betting has been legalized with a launch date set to January 1, 2023. This is a result of the approved sports bill in December 2021 and the recently signed legislation by Gov. Mike DeWine, which made betting on any Olympic, international, professional, college sports event or any race legal in Ohio. It will be interesting to see how these new gambling options will affect revenues across the gambling industry in Ohio state next year.